Understanding the role of altered gene expression in the development and progression of diseases such as cancer is a major focus of today's research. To determine a gene's function, researchers frequently perform transfection experiments to introduce or remove genes to cells grown in culture. Currently, the most common non-viral transfection methods used in the laboratory include cationic polymers, liposomes and denrimers. All these systems have positive charges that interact with nucleic acids to form complexes which can be internalized by cells. Currently, these non-viral methods are limited in terms of low transfection efficiency and high cell toxicity. Further, transfection protocols are typically laborious and require numerous steps to perform. Here we describe the development of new polycation/nucleic acid formulations for cell transfection. These new transfection reagents are simple to formulate, produce reproducible results, transfect numerous cell lines with high efficiency and display low cell toxicity.